Fake Newsreal, a film portrait of the late Marilyn Monroe, is in the form of a subjective and open-ended collage, consisting completely of image quotations that have been graphically manipulated and transformed. Appropriated film footage, TV images and still photos have been stylized to intensify their content and to create a visually homogeneous effect. The film’s synthetic color was produced by using color correction filters in combination with positive and negative printing procedures. Electronic distortion was achieved by manipulating video imagery and transferring it to film, and kinetic modifications were made by various forms of stop-motion rephotography. As a result the images in Fake Newsreal, which were originally produced for commercial television and print media, have been substantially altered and relocated in an entirely different graphic and formal context.

The soundtrack for Fake Newsreal is a mixture of electronic music and the voice of Marilyn Monroe singing “Bye, Bye Baby.”

Notes taken from Robert Russett: A retrospective survey, University Art Museum, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1989.